Pools of Gold and Blue
by Nebbz
Summary: Jaune has heart, everyone knows that, sometimes his actions get him in more trouble than he bargains for though. AU where Cinder and Co. aren't antagonists, just regular Haven students in Beacon.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! I'm Neb and this is my first fic, I suck at writing and trying to get things across and I'm hoping that this will help and I'll get better, so anyways any and all criticisms will be taken into account in proceeding chapters (If it goes farther than this chapter). So before we start I just want to state that I don't own RWBY or any of its characters, they pertain to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.**

 **So before we start, this is an AU where Cinder and Co. aren't antagonists, and are just regular Haven Students in Beacon.**

 **ON WITH THE FIC!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Bruises and Broken Bones**

Jaune wasn't the best fighter in Beacon, hell he wasn't even on half the level that most of his classmates where at to begin with, but he did have heart. He never backed down until it was over, and that was an admirable feat that many of his friends loved, though it did get him into trouble more often than not, and this wasn't going to be an exception. Everyone had Goodwitch's class today and that meant sparring for whoever she picked. Jaune took his seat next to his team members and gave a smile to team RWBY sitting a couple of rows away.

The elegant professor took her place in the middle of the classroom's battlefield and cleared her throat.

"Ahem. Instead of one-on-one duels today we will be doing two-on-two's, I will decide the pairs, let's begin."

"First, Mr. Winchester you will be paired with..." A certain blonde male held his breath hoping that he wouldn't be paired with the brainless brute.

"Emerald Sustrai, both of you please prepare for battle and report back to this room." The blonde released his breath and smiled sheepishly at his teammates.

"Next is Cinder Fall, you're partner is..." Every male head turned to look at the beauty that was Cinder Fall, she was a student from Haven who were in Beacon because of the upcoming Vytal Festival but in the short time she was here she had enthralled almost every male student at Beacon. They all looked at her like Ursai look at Red Sap, all hoping that they would be chosen to be her battle partner, but she paid no mind to them. She waited to see which one of these lust-filled boys would be paired up with her.

"Jaune Arc, please ready yourselves for battle and return to the room." The entire male population let out a collective sigh of defeat, how out of all the strong people in class she gets paired with the loser that is Jaune Arc? It must have been Monty punishing them for what they've done in a past life. They let it go and just waited for Jaune to get his ass handed to him by Cardin.

* * *

 ** _In the locker room_**

* * *

"Hey Cin, sorry you got paired up with Jaune." Emerald had a sense of pity in her voice, not for her teammate but for the blond goof who would definitely receive a swift beating.

"It's nothing, You know me, I'll make it work." Cinder responded to her teammate, hoping that the blond wouldn't drag her down too much. She turned to leave back to the classroom.

"Oh and Emerald?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm not holding back, so I don't expect you to either." Cinder smirked at her teammate, always a feel of rivalry between the two.

"You know me, I don't know how to hold back." Emerald returned the smirk, a glint of fire in her eyes.

* * *

 ** _Back in the classroom_**

* * *

Jaune smiled at Cinder as she walked towards his side of the battlefield. Jaune's interactions with her had been minimal throughout the while she's been at Beacon, a simple "Hi", "Bye" and a few "How are you?"s had been exchanged between the two, but never evolving into a deeper conversation. She stood beside him and asked, "Can you handle the brute long enough for me to get rid of his teammate?"

"I can try my best, but no promises."

"It's better than nothing." They both looked at their opponents, ready to begin the battle.

Ms. Goodwitch looked at both sides.

"The rules are as follows: The match will be over when both teammates' auras dip below 10% there will be no cheap shots allowed, meaning no gauging of the eyes or blows to, ahem. _Lower areas_."

She stared at Cardin for the last part, knowing the boy wasn't the cleanest of fighters.

"Ready? Begin!"

Cardin charged at Jaune hoping that he would make quick work of him, he swung his mace aiming straight at Jaune's chest but the blond moved out of the way before he could get hit. He bashed Cardin with his shield and immediately took a step back to put distance between himself and the mace-wielder. Cardin turned and gave the boy a venomous glare.

"You're gonna regret doing that."

On the other side of the arena Cinder focused on sending fireballs at Emerald, preventing her from using her kusarigama and forcing her to use her pistols. Cinder was being evenly matched, but that was to be expected. They trained and lived together, so they each knew the other one's fighting style very intimately. What threw Cinder off was a blur of blond hair flying across her peripheral vision, she threw one more fireball towards Emerald before turning her eyes to check the screen for everyone's aura levels.

 _Cardin Winchester – 24%_

 _Emerald Sustrai – 48%_

 _Cinder Fall - 53%_

 _Jaune Arc – 12%_

The sight made her cringe, she turned back and dodged more bullets from Emerald before seeing the blond try to stand only to be impeded by Cardin's foot. The boy raised his mace, and finished the blond mess off dropping him to 10%. Jaune's body dropped like a sack of potatoes, the sight made even Cinder feel pity for the boy. Cinder sidestepped a little bit and hit Emerald straight on with one of her fireballs. She took the moment to charge at her and engage, but she felt she forgot something. She looked at Jaune, Cardin was nowhere near him, she had dropped her guard and felt the brutish boy grunt behind her. She closed her eyes and readied herself for the blow from the brute and the blades from Emerald's weapon, she wasn't sure if her aura would block the entirety of the damage, but she hoped. What happened next all passed in slow motion for Cinder, she felt the cold ground of the battlefield meet her back forcefully, she heard the collective gasp of everyone in the classroom, then she heard the screams, students were shocked, and she heard Goodwitch call the fight off completely, she tapped her scroll furiously and yelled something along the lines of "WE HAVE SEVERE TRAUMA, MEDICAL ASSISSTANCE REQUIRED ASAP."

Cinder was confused, she didn't know why everyone was screaming, that's when she lifted herself to see Jaune, or what was left of Jaune. Cardin's mace had dug itself in his side, and Emerald's kusarigama had pierced his two shoulders. They all stood in shock, Jaune's aura had completely shattered and left him open to physical injury, Cardin withdrew his mace and Emerald removed her blades. Jaune's body dropped, and everyone ran to his side.

Emerald and Cardin didn't know what to say, their eyes had gone completely wide and they dropped their weapons, they tried to stutter out a sorry but their voices didn't come out. Cinder crawled to his side, and in his last moments of consciousness he asked her.

"Are you ok?"

She nodded and with that, his head dropped and the blood began to pool around his body.

In the next moments the medical staff arrived and were rendered speechless by the sight of the boy, they moved him to a stretcher, making sure to keep their movements rapid in order to try and save the boys life. Once he was transported into the Emergency sector of the medical facility, team RWBY, Cinder, Emerald, Cardin, and what remained of JNPR were forced to wait outside until the doctor came to them. The doctor stated his injuries, including a mess of broken ribs, and some internal bleeding, but he had made it through, he was asleep now but they could remain by his bedside if they so wish. They all visited, and Cardin and Emerald were the first to leave, nobody blamed them for what happened to Jaune, he did this out of his own volition, it was just like him, but this time he may have taken it too far. Next was team RWBY, they all needed their rest but left him balloons and the like before they left. Finally albeit begrudgingly was Pyrrha and the rest of JNPR, she wanted to stay with him the entire night, and wanted to be there when he woke up. Ren had convinced her otherwise however, and she left after hugging Jaune.

Cinder was the last one left in the room, she looked at the sleeping form beside her, she wasn't one for sappy emotions but she wondered why the boy who she barely knew had risked his own life to save her from being the one in this position. She was more shocked when he asked her if she was alright before passing out, was he really _that_ concerned? Why? All the questions in her head went unanswered as sleep slowly claimed her mind, she laid her head down on Jaune's bed and drifted off into sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, it's me! Sorry I've been away for far longer than I would've liked I was in another country and such a thing kinda stopped me from writing while I was there. But going into better things I want to give a huge thanks to all of you who have followed, reviewed, and favorited. It means a lot especially considering that it's my first fic.**

 **Also if anyone wants to beta and have input on the story send me a message and I'll get back to you within the week. It would definitely help me get on a schedule to update this consistently & such. Anyways enough of this stuff, you guys waited too long for a 2nd chapter so...**

 **ON WITH THE FIC!**

* * *

Chapter 2 – Recovery

" _And it has been said that the Arc clan of warriors have a power somewhere inside them, manifesting itself through their semblance, that allows them to be the Knight worthy of wielding Crocea Mors..."_

 _Jaune's Great-Grandfather, Desmond, was a key factor in the Great War,_

 _Jaune's Grandfather, Alphonse, fought alongside the Faunus in the Faunus War,_

 _Jaune's Father, Gris, was one of the greatest Huntsmen in Remnant,_

 _And Jaune, what would he be remembered for?_

* * *

Jaune could faintly hear voices around him, like the person was speaking but it was muffled somehow as if they were speaking into a pillow. He tried to open his eyes but was met with the brightest light to ever exist, so instead he slightly cracked his left eye open hoping to get used to the light, and after a few seconds of getting used to it he was able to open his eyes. He was met with a pair of golden orbs locking onto him.

"...Hello?" His voice was hoarse as if he hadn't used it in a while.

"Hello Mr. Arc." A man with a white lab coat with the Beacon emblem on the left side responded in a calm voice. "My name is Doctor Ise, and I have been overseeing your recovery."

Jaune attempted to accommodate himself into a sitting position but his body angrily denied him any movement, and thus he fell back onto the bed.

"You shouldn't exert yourself Jaune, you're body isn't ready to move just yet, not after what happened." Dr. Ise said.

"Dr. Ise what happened? Why am I in the medical bay?"

"Mr. Arc..." Dr. Ise started out calmly, "you know how Aura is supposed to prevent any actual harm to your body?" he finished the question and released a sigh.

"Yeah, it's the manifestation of one's soul, I have a lot but I still don't know how to control it..." Jaune said, not knowing where he was going with this.

"Well, when one depletes their Aura, it shatters meaning there will be no barrier between injury and the wielder. Jaune, you received a hit from Mr. Winchester's and Ms. Sustrai's weapons after your Aura dipped below 10 percent, and they shattered your Aura." He trembled as he said the last part, remembering how the young boy was brought in to the medical bay, he never thought a person had that much blood in their system.

"Wait, so I WONT HAVE AURA ANYMORE?!" Jaune panicked, the one thing he had going for him and it was gone, he would die for sure. He would get pricked by a rusty nail and die a long painful death.

"No no no no, nothing that extreme, it will regenerate itself, your Aura has already begun to do so, but for now the damage that you incurred will recover as if you had no Aura." The doctor finished the explanation to Jaune.

"Well Mr. Arc, you seem to be recovering, albeit slowly, but you should be out of here within the week, but expect to make a full recovery by the end of the month, your body will be sore for a couple of more days, if anything ring the buzzer and a nurse will be with you." The Doctor nodded and wrote down a couple of things on the pad he had in his hand. "With that I will be on my way, again Mr. Arc if anything happens the buzzer is on the bed, I will contact your team about your awakening." The Doctor left after that, making sure to close the door to his room as to reduce the noise in his room.

"I'm sorry..." The other person in the room finally spoke.

"This is my fault, if I would have taken Emerald out I could have helped, but I couldn't." Cinder's normally smoldering glare put out by the tears in her eyes. The golden orbs looked at blue ones, begging for forgiveness, as if the situation was genuinely her fault.

Jaune wouldn't have it.

"It isn't your fault Cinder, to be honest I don't even remember what happened, but I remember seeing you about to be hurt, and then that was it." Jaune looked at her sincerely, giving her a smile. She looked at him as though he grew another head. She never knew a person to be this forgiving, all the pain he must be in but yet he wrote it off as if it was a normal occurrence.

"How long was I out? I never got around to asking the doctor, but I feel like it's been a day or two." Jaune asked sincerely curious as to how long he had been asleep.

"...More like a week." Cinder responded.

"Wait WHAT?!" Jaune freaked out, almost a week?! He was going to be drowned in the amount of make-up work he had to do for Oobleck and Port. "Oh god, I'm going to have to write so many essays..."

"Actually the Professors have excused you from work following the accident." Cinder wondered how the boy was freaking out about classes after nearly dying days before.

Jaune nearly passed out from the sheer happiness of what he just heard, but the loud slamming of his door by Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR prevented him from doing so. The spartan girl nearly sprinting to get Jaune into a hug.

* * *

"So has Mr. Arc finally unlocked his Semblance?" Ozpin asked Glynda as he sipped some of his coffee.

"I'm not sure...but it looks like he has, the way he nearly teleported to Ms. Fall's side, Mr. Arc has never done something like that before." Ms. Goodwitch stated, constantly replaying the last moments of Jaune's fight.

"...And the light that surrounded him, it was most definitely the last of the Aura he had before he was attacked." Ozpin calmly stated.

"Yes, there's that and..." Glynda played with some of the settings on the video in order to see the light surrounding Jaune clearly "it seems that the Aura manifestation took a pretty interesting shape." Glynda looked clearly at the video with a bemused smirk.

The familiar form of a hood.

"Glynda please slow down the video" Ozpin asked and Glynda did so. They caught another familiar trait similar to the Scythe-wielder. When Jaune teleported, he left behind falling golden petals of light. It seems that the Arc family has produced another great warrior. Hopefully he will see no war in his lifetime.

* * *

 **Well that's the end of chapter two, I do have some ideas to go off of but leave some comments on how you would like to see things go and such. Till then**

 **See Ya Later**

 **\- Nebbz**


End file.
